I'm with Fluke, they're both dickheads and they both try and wind each other up and other players. They're both what's wrong with the modern footballer and I don't buy Ferdinand being "hurt" by any of it for one second, frankly it seems to me he's just seen the celebrity, and the extra pound signs, this opportunity brings. But if Terry has been racist, he deserves to face the punishment and to be made an example of. Mind you a 5-day trial with all the taxpayer's money used for a £2,500 fine as the maximum sentence feels a bit of a joke to be honest and I'm already sick to death of it.

Not the acceptable sort, like when Andy Murray becomes a 'Scottish c***' for not being David Beckham or being as good as we want him to be and having the temerity to have tabloid stories invented about him. Or when England are playing the dirty Krauts or surrender monkeys who, we are reliably informed, "don't like it up 'em".

Please for the love of God stop this "look at the English blatantly being racist against our poor Scottish tennis player" crap. Just look through the international football threads to see pretty much the same and worse coming from the other side of our northern boarder and across the Irish sea. The hypocrisy on that tennis thread was running at ridiculous levels.

None of it is right, but this holier-than-thou is just really getting tired now.

How have I been 'holier-than-thou'? I really need this explaining.

I read your post in the style of Chris Morris and got its sardonic bent....

ORIGINAL: Chief What are your thoughts on the sledging that goes on at the cricket?

I knew the West Indies had been struggling to unearth new talent but I think they should stick to the cricket.

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Absolutely. Not over by any means. It could well be a wider look at players' conduct on the pitch and their attitudes towards each other.

Dunno how much further they could go with this particular case though - it appears it was Ashley Cole's evidence that proved Terry's innocence so I guess the same conclusion would be reached through an FA investigation. The addition of another witness outside of the two players involved is the huge difference between this and the Suarez/Evra affair. Though as for the wider issue of players' conduct, I sincerely hope the Mary Whitehouse/professional-outraged brigade don't get their way and players start getting banned for swearing at each other.

The FA is judging something different though, aren't they? I read pretty much all of the Suarez judgement (arguing with my other half so needed back up) and it seemed to say that no matter what the background was to Suarez saying it it wasn't relevant to the fact it should never have actually been said. So the parrot boy defence is not one, I don't think, that's relevant to the way the FA may look at it.

Well I guess that'll come clear in due course but he wasn't in court for simply saying 'you fucking black cunt', he was accused of calling someone a 'fucking black cunt'. As he has been found innocent largely as a result of a witness who backed up his claim that he was simply repeating it back (whether we personally buy that or not that is a separate issue) I can't see how an FA investigation would come to a different conclusion. But I don't really know enough about how these things work so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

He was in court for a public order offence, though. The FA, I think, were looking at Suarez in terms of fairly strict criteria on the use of racial terms on the field. Which Terry has admitted saying. The unproven case for them would be whether Ferdinand said them too?

He was in court for a public order offence, though. The FA, I think, were looking at Suarez in terms of fairly strict criteria on the use of racial terms on the field. Which Terry has admitted saying. The unproven case for them would be whether Ferdinand said them too?

True but it's now been accepted by the court that he was merely repeating the words back. Suarez was found guilty of actually calling another player a racist term. Because of this difference between the two in my opinion it would be a waste of time for the FA to pursue it in a similar vein only to come to the same conclusion as the court case. Though as Skiba said, I wouldn't be surprised if they both get hit with a disrepute charge.

I think the judge said something slightly different - they said there's too much doubt to give any other verdict. Reading the wording I wonder if there is a chance that if this were Scotland it would be a Not Proven verdict. Possibly not with the 'highly unlikely' comment, but it is a statement that the key was prosecution failure.

So Rio Ferdinand called Ashely Cole a "choc ice" on Twitter. He has the IQ of a rock to be naive enough to think that that comment is just an innocent poke. He might as well just have said "uncle tom".

So Rio Ferdinand called Ashely Cole a "choc ice" on Twitter. He has the IQ of a rock to be naive enough to think that that comment is just an innocent poke. He might as well just have said "uncle tom".

It takes a special brand of idiot to give Ashley Cole the moral highground after he stuck up for EBJT, but you can always rely on Rio. He's even tried to pretend there's no racial element to the term, and he was simply calling Cole a 'fake'. No wonder the guy is injured so much, he's always got both his feet in his mouth.

I'm not the most ardent follower of football but all this stupid tit-for-tat does little to change my opinion that a lot of these guys are just uncouth, idiotic morons. Like Chief pointed out, mind games and taunts aren't uncommon in other sports, like cricket for instance, but I don't hear of incidents in any other sports where you're having to argue the context of the words "fucking black cunt" being spoken in a game.

I haven't followed the case too closely, just read a few articles on the BBC, but I find it mind boggling that it came to court, it seems like such a flimsy case. All seems to based on what people have seen/heard on replay footage - Ferdinand didn't even hear it and wasn't even the one reporting it and there was seemingly sod all to be contrubuted by witnesses. Complete waste of money and everyone's time.

Sounds to me like it should have been dealt with within the sport itself by the FA. Obviously the racist element rightly elevates the situation, but it sounds like attitudes and behaviour on pitch needs thoroughly sorting out. From what I read, Anton Ferdinand has been happy to admit he was being an arsehole and slagging off John Terry. Not that I'm a defender of Terry (I think he's a twat as much as the next man), but if there's any hint of deep rooted, underlying racist attitudes, if Ferdinand deceides it's fun to hurl insults relating to his adulterous characteristic, it's unsurprising that he might (I'm talking 'allegedly', don't want to get in trouble here) get called a "black cunt" in response.

Not quite sure how this is going to make me sound - I don't want to give the impression that I think racism in the sport is anything less than despicable as I don't. Like I said, I think they all need their attitudes bringing in line and need a bit of respect and sportmanship kicked into there childish, egotisitical, twattish arses - whatever colour or creed they are.

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